Home Run

From the late poet Gregory Corso's ""Dream of a Baseball Star"" to pitcher Sadaharu Oh's ""A Zen Way of Baseball,"" New York's honorary commissioner of fireworks, George Plimpton (who has also written a score of books and cofounded the Paris Review), has assembled the full-swinging Home Run, with pieces devoted to that fence-transcending moment. Don DeLillo's fictionalized ""Pafko at the Wall"" watches Bobby Thomson's ""Shot Heard `Round the World"" sail over his head; Garrison Keillor takes ""The Babe"" to Lake Wobegon; and Roger Angell (A Pitcher's Story; Forecasts, Apr. 16) chimes in with ""Homeric Tales"" of the mythically showstopping impact of home runs: ""Even when one goes out in mid-game, it stops the story. Nothing ensues."" These 18 essays revel in such moments as Maris's 61st, McGwire's 69th and 70th and Hank Aaron's all-time record.Plimpton (who contributes two essays) presents all with signature panache in introductory notes. ( June 1)